Thursday, July 30, 2015

WRITE NOW - MAKE YOUR MANUSCRIPT GLEAM

MAKE YOUR
MANUSCRIPT GLEAM

(Two never fail
manuscript polishing methods)

The two best ways
to make a manuscript gleam are:

1.Read your entire manuscript aloud.
Overlook nothing. Title, subtitle, headings, signature blurb, tags, and
links.Stop and consider every word you
read--if it's not clear enough, crystalize! If an awkward sentence construction
distracts you, it will distract your reader.Typos and misspellings scream carelessness, and diminish your
credibility.For example: When an expert
writes a pro Second Amendment argument and submits it with the glaring mistake:
'the right to bare arms,' three
things happen: 1) the reader envisions thousands of sleeves being pushed up; 2)
the reader wonders if the writer ever read the Second Amendment; 3) the reader
wonders if the writer is as careless with her weapons as she is with her
manuscript.

It
all boils down to respect for your story and for your readers.In a 500 word manuscript errors indicate
inexcusable laziness. In a 70,000+ word book, frequent errors exhaust readers
and force them to abandon your masterpiece and rightfully so. Why should the
reader care enough to traipse through a mire of awkwardly constructed
sentences, improper grammar, and aggravating typos when there are thousands of
similar books and articles that are easier to read? Your story might be
positively enthralling but if you don't care enough to clean it up, it may
never be read.Or even worse, if you
self-publish shoddily edited material, it will get read and earn deservedly bad
reviews as well as resentment from readers.Why resentment? Because you insulted their intelligence by assuming they
wouldn't notice that you didn't respect your story enough to make it
gleam.

2.Get a second set of eyes.Spellchecker is only a start; not nearly
enough.You need human eyes that
recognize homonyms, misused words, grammatical errors, punctuation errors, sentences
heavy with unnecessary prepositional phrases, and sentences that contain cliches instead of original thoughts.So
once you've gone over your manuscript in minute detail, hand it over to someone
with decent spelling and writing skills--try a writer friend that you respect
on Facebook, or perhaps even join a writer's workshop.Tell your friend you need a second set of
eyes on the manuscript; eyes belonging to someone with no qualms about circling
every single imperfection.

When the manuscript comes
back be grateful for all the circled errs that won't appear in your final
draft.Go over it one more time, then
submit your gleaming manuscript with confidence and pride.

A writing career is fraught with obstacles, and
writers can always use a break.Polishing a manuscript until it gleams is one you can give
yourself.

On
September 13th, 2015 Terri married her Hottie Scottie, Blaze
McRob (Robert Nelson), who is an equally twisted horror writer who found her
online, crept into her world, swept her off her feet and revels in the fact that
they are two peas in a very strange pod.

No
doubt there will be many dark fiction tales for ooky aficionados to revel in
coming very soon.